Covergirl
by MorgieSan
Summary: Life's so easy, breezy, beautiful. Except for when someone asks Kate Beckett to be the spokesperson for Covergirl. (just realized that it messed up the credit in the authors note: inspired by mbthecool's gifset)


Notes: Story was was inspired by this post, post/40683186595/kate-beckett-doing-commercials-inspired-by, and a sassy amount of Morgan at night. Jodi and Ellie heavily encouraged the writing of this, and since I usually just leave them with head canons I figured it was time to follow through. Also, a special thanks to Logan for letting me make sure Jodi and Ellie weren't lying to me about Katie being ridiculously out of character.

Disclaimer: I own a pair of ratty Nike's and a bag of Cantina style Tostitos. I do not own Castle.

* * *

_Richard Castle's "Nikki Heat" is the talk of tinsel town today, last night's premiere of what will undoubtedly be a big summer blockbuster for Touchstone Pictures was a critical success. Press and fans alike were more than pleased with the adaptation of the best selling novel, claiming it to be a perfect blend action, romance, mystery, and good looking celebrities. Speaking of good looking celebrities, the author himself was in attendance with non-other than the real life Nikki Heat herself, the NYPD's hottest detective, Kate Beckett. The pair of them left many of us here at Quip wondering, why isn't she a household name? Her super model good looks left more than a few jaws on the floor last night, the least of which belonged to..._

Kate sighed as she let the paper fall back to the counter in front of her. Rick looked so pleased as he stood on the other side of the counter loaded down with even more print outs. She was a hit. He'd spent the morning looking for reviews on the film, and had instead found the gold mine that was her name. America was falling just as much in love with Kate Beckett as he had.

"This is terrible," she sighed.

"This is amazing," he countered, waving the stack of papers at her nose. "They love you, and not the Nikki Heat you."

"No, they think I was pretty. Arm candy."

"/They/ said you could be a super model. I've got another one on here that actual did some research, they talk about your smarts. And if you would stop quitting after only reading half of these, you would notice that many of them come to the same conclusion."

"And what conclusion is that?" she asked, taking his bait with as much disinterest as she could muster.

He rounded the counter, dropping his stack of paper on the island and turning her to face him. "That women like you are the kind of role models we need to be putting out into the world. That just because you have a pretty face doesn't mean you can't have brains and wicked ninja skills. They all like that you aren't an airhead or attention seeker, that you aren't a shell, but a well-rounded and whole person. All but one of them said that, and you can pretty much ignore anything Rex Linsey has to say; I've actually never met a bigger misogynist than him."

She eyed him warily before taking another slug of coffee. "They obviously didn't do enough research."

"That's a load of bullshit and you know it. Kate, you are beautiful and intelligent and confident and comfortable in your own skin. I wish Alexis had had someone like you to look up to when she was little. She was all legs and red hair and way too smart for her own good, but she hated school. They teased her and called her names and she dumbed herself down to make it stop, because it wasn't okay for her to be smart and pretty. Thank God she found a group of girls who didn't care that she cared a lot about schoolwork, way more than they did for sure, but liked her for it anyway."

"I didn't know that," she whispered.

"She doesn't talk about it much, doesn't like to. Can't say I like it much either, but Kate you could change that. You could give some little kid out there hope, or a dream. These people, these bloggers and entertainment reporters, are giving you power, whether you like it or not. Use it for good."

"I really hate it when you make convincing arguments first thing in the morning. Not even done with my coffee and I'm agreeing to this quasi-celebrity status thing, the day can only get worse." She swirled the coffee in her mug around a few times, watching it come dangerously close to sloshing over the sides. "You'll help me, right? Make sure I don't do or say stupid things?"

"That'll be easy, don't do or say anything I would."

"Rick," she warned, waving his joke off. "I'm not good at this, and you know it."

"No, Kate, you are good at this. You just don't know it," he murmured, pressing his lips to her forehead. "And you do know that I'd never throw you out to the sharks, at least not without me by your side."

She nodded and leaned into his loose embrace. "Can I go hide in bed now? We could have sex all day long and never leave there ever again."

"How about pancakes instead? But we are totally sticking a pin the full day of sex idea."

She smirked and nodded. "Blueberry?"

"For you, anything," he whispered, pressing a smacking kiss onto her forehead and twirling back into the kitchen.

She left her thoughts drift far away from her impending limelight and focus on trivial things instead. Like what to have for dinner tonight and if she should get a manicure. She was brought back from sea several minutes later when a plate was slid in front of her.

"It's smiling at me."

"Not the traditional Castle Smiley Pancake, but I can work with what I'm given."

She glanced at the blueberry smile one more time and then back up at her boyfriend. "Still works. Honey?"

"RIGHT!" He jumped, actually, literally, totally, jumped over to the pantry to search out the honey bear for her. "I still don't understand your aversion to syrup."

"It's too sweet, I've told you that about 100 times."

"And honey isn't?" he questioned, placing the half empty bear in front of her.

"It's less sweet and has the added bonus of being local."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

She rolled her eyes and flicked a finger up at him. "It's local, you are supporting a New York farmer." She added a second. "The bees are feeding on local flora, so you're helping to block out potential allergic reactions to some of those plants." She added a third finger. "It tastes better."

He sucked in an overly dramatic breath and stumbled against the counter clutching his chest. "You wound me."

She laughed and drizzled the honey over her short stack. "More fun to play with too," she winked, cutting into her breakfast.

"I will concede that point."

Three days had passed since the premiere with relatively little happening in the way of sudden onset celebrity status. She'd been stopped on he street a few times by a few people to be thanked for doing her job, and to hear people say they were going to pursue police work because of her. She even got asked for an autograph once, and Castle was so puffed up with pride that he didn't care about being summarily ignored by the teenage girl who was gushing to Kate about clothes and boys and Nikki Heat. And she had to begrudgingly admit that yeah, he was kind of right about the whole being good at it thing.

Paula's surprise interruption of their quiet dinner at the loft however was the game changer.

"Kate, just the girl I was looking for. I got a call today, a pretty exciting one actually, about you."

"Me?" Kate arched a brow in confusion and picked her wine glass up. "This can't be good."

"Au contraire, Covergirl called me. They want to feature you in an ad campaign. Print and a commercial, and a hefty donation to the charity of your choice."

She was gripping the glass so hard by the time Paula finished speaking she actually snapped it at the stem. "What?" Her voice came out as an entirely ungrateful squeak a the rest of the glass hit the floor at her feet.

Rick sprang into action and went for a towel. "Paula don't say another word about that to anyone."

"Oh sweetie, it's far too late for that. The Mayor knows."

The color drained from Kate's face as she sank down into the padded chair behind her. "I don't want to do that, Paula. At all. That's big. Huge. No. No way. Not happening."

"You're doing it, Detective. And it's an order from way over my head," Gates told her the next morning. "1PP and the Mayor are both backing this stunt."

"I'll quit. I swear, I will quit," Kate groaned, dropping her head down onto folded arms, the only thing keeping her from slamming her face onto the wooden desk in front of her.

"You tried that once before."

"I don't want this. I don't want to do this. Make them understand how humiliating this is," she begged.

"Detective, Kate, we are in the same boat here. I tried to make them understand how this would effect not only you, but all the women on the force. All they see is the good press, and what they hope might be a lot of money for the PBA or NYPD Foundation."

"Can you arrest me before I kill someone over this? Preventative measures? Protective custody? Suspicion of theft?"

Gates gave her a wan smile and settled into the leather chair next to her. "Stick it to them, Kate. Go do it and give that money to something that's important to you. Let them fund that charity Castle set up in your mother's name. The 12th will back you up, you know that."

Kate heaved a put upon sigh and turned to her boss. "I really don't get a choice in this do I?"

"I'm afraid not."

A week later she was sitting in Paula's office with Paula, Rick, his lawyer, and a representative from Covergirl hashing out all the deal points. This was probably the least painful part of the process, and the company had been kind enough to split their donation between two charities, the Widows and Orphan's fund and her mother's scholarship.

A week after that she was sitting on the deck at the Hampton's house getting her hair and make-up done while a stylist fussed over what to put her in.

"None of these dresses will work. They are all wrong with your coloring, I see that now, and far too low cut. No, no. I have to go find something else."

Just like that the man was off like a shot, commandeering an assistant and a car to find a dress in a local shop. The two girls working on her make-up tried to console her.

"He's super neurotic, but he's actually really good at his job," the blonde said.

"Totally. He dressed Taylor Swift once, and her face was so precious when she saw how she looked after he was done. He's like... So good at picking out the right clothes for people. It's a bit ridiculous," the redhead added.

"I think I'm going to be sick " Kate muttered, closing her eyes and trying to block everyone out.

"Honey, if you need to vomit let me know. I've had more than a few pairs of shoes ruined by the ill."

Kate just groaned and sank further into the seat. "Your shoes are safe. Can I go for a walk? While we wait for him to come back? I'm going for a walk."

She was back in the house and tugging on Rick's arm before either of the make-up artists could blink.

"Hey, what's..."

"I really need a hug. And maybe a sedative," she explained as she dragged him to the other end of the house. "This is so not me. I'm not... Can we run away? Those two girls are so vapid and I feel like a piece of meat over there, just a thing to dress up and make pretty. They make me antsy."

Rick pulled her into a tight hug, hair and make-up be dammed. "Guess I haven't been doing a very good job with the whole sharks thing have I? I'm sorry."

"They didn't give you much of a choice, Rick. They dragged you off to find a place to set up and all but tied me to that chair."

He sighed and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Your hair smells wrong."

"I think she used an entire can of hairspray. And it looks like someone stuck my finger in a light socket. Have you ever seen my hair this poofy? Because I haven't." She was practically growling about it, which was good. She'd take her frustrations out on him instead of killing someone.

"It's a bit... big, yeah," he agreed, rubbing a soothing hand up and down her spine.

"I hate it."

They turned their heads back down the hall as a clamor erupted from the vicinity of the kitchen.

"What do you mean she ran off?" someone shouted.

"I mean she got up, walked into the house, and took off down the hallway with the dude," the blonde explained, slowly.

"Oh look, someone finally cared." She rolled her eyes and let him lead her back down the open hallway. "Can you talk them into leaving?"

"The dramatics are my department, Kate. Besides, you're the one who has actually modeled."

"One summer, because I didn't want to wait tables and I'm tall. Not because I had aspirations for any of this over the top insanity."

He turned on her and placed his hands on her cheeks, curling his fingers into the silky hair at the base of her skull that hadn't been shellacked three times over. "I'm going to sit you back in that chair, and then in going to go find you a book. Okay?"

"Okay." She nodded and bit down on her lower lip.

"And then I'm going to stay by your side until they put you in front of the camera."

"Promise? God, I sound like such a needy brat."

"No, you sound like an extraordinary woman who has been thrown into the middle of an entirely unfamiliar and entirely uncomfortable situation. Just remember to smile, and this will go as well as the photos yesterday." He finished with a long press of his lips to hers and then ushered her into the canvas seat.

"Bring me a comic book."

She was well into her second Batman when the stylist came back with a single garment bag draped over his arm.

"You two! Get her head under a sink now, make it soft and curly. This dress will not stand up to that mess."

"Oh, yessssss," Kate hissed under her breath, shoving the book at Rick and quickly moving over to the sink.

45 minutes later she was standing in front of the full length mirror smoothing her fingers over the dress.

"He said it's made from Royal Cotton," she explained, turning to Rick and feathering her fingers along the demure skirt. "It feels amazing."

"You look amazing. I think that dress was made for you, Kate."

She gave him a shy smile and turned back to the mirror. "Someone spent a very long time making this dress. It's all hand embroidered."

The ivory cotton was left untouched above her waist. It had a high cut neckline and no sleeves, and the expanse of her back was left exposed. A simple belt of chocolate brown silk separated the parts of the dress, and below that an eruption color overtook the A-Line. Hand sewn branches had been painstakingly sewn into the fabric, gone over and over and over again until they stood out from the dress. From there cherry blossoms had been added, in varying states of bloom. The reds and pinks and whites swirled around in each other, like they were blowing in the breeze.

"So beautiful," he murmured, looking her over from softly curled hair to bare feet once more.

"They're ready for you, Kate," Jennifer, the blonde, spoke, popping her head into the changing room. "What did I tell you about him?"

"You were right," she admitted quietly before pressing a quick kiss to Rick's cheek and following the make-up artist out to set.

She really was kind of scary good at this, Rick thought as he watched her film the commercial. She knew her lines and hit her mark and, in his completely biased opinion, no one had ever looked so beautiful as she did in the summer sun. They shot a few different inserts with her once the scary part was over, and he saw that pressure melt off her shoulders. He was standing just off the deck waiting her for when they called cut and before he had a chance to react she was next to him bouncing on her toes in the grass.

"It's over!"

He laughed and tugged her into his side. "Yeah, it's over."

"Thank you for keeping me kind of sane."

"Anytime," he promised, pulling her in for a loose hug and a thorough kiss.

She grinned against his lips as he dragged her out toward the sand.

When the commercial first aired they were both surprised to see that it ended with that kiss. A silhouette of them against the setting sun.


End file.
